This refers to Shyamal Majumdar's column "Succession at Bandhan" (Human Factor, November 7). The very idea and implementation of succession planning seldom exists in most of our successful enterprises. There could be an interesting debate as to why such an important and almost indispensable topic is ignored in board room discussions. I would rather believe that because of the "not so urgent" tag attached to it, most of the current chief executive officers' (CEOs) priority lists do not feature this activity. This could result in irreversible damage to the organisation and sometimes the nation as well.
We saw how succession planning worked in the Tata group when Cyrus Mistry took over the mantle when Ratan Tata was still around in a very healthy state of mind and body. It takes a lot of training and hands-on experience to become a successful CEO. So, when the time comes for a CEO's retirement the company board hurriedly and sometimes unprofessionally selects a successor only to find that the gap between the two is difficult to fill. The saying "failing to plan" is surely "planning to fail", holds true for succession planning.
Ashok Chakrabarty Kolkata
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